A relationship query language, such as In Fact® Query Language (IQL), which supports queries that express relationships between entities such as persons, places, or things using actions or events, is often difficult for many users to learn. One reason is that the syntax for such queries may be unfamiliar, and users may be accustomed to keyword matching based search systems. Even when relationship queries are supported, it has been found that often user queries are simple keywords rather than complex relationship expressions. This trend is not expected to change in the near term.
In addition, many third party applications exist which leverage more advanced users' abilities to tag or label “items” (such as web pages, images, etc.) that users have discovered by browsing web pages, using keyword search engines or through other discovery means. In some of these applications, the tags or labeled items may form a focus for a community that uses the application. For example, social networking sites typically allow users to create or use existing “tags” or “labels” (e.g., words that are used as keys for finding or relocating information) and to assign them to various electronic data, such as url-locatable (e.g., web) pages. Other users of the same social networking site can then locate related information (such as other url pages) by specifying one or more of the defined tags or labels.